Choice Amount and Choice-Making in Children: A Comparison of Children with and without Symptoms of ADHD

Research has demonstrated that increased options can have a negative impact on choice experience, post-choice affect, and purchasing behavior in adults. While the use of choice and choice interventions is sometimes used in educational settings, this negative impact, the choice overload hypothesis, has yet to be examined in children. Further, if the presence of choice overload were to be identified in this population it may have further implications on children with ADHD who exhibit deficits in executive functioning. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to examine choice duration in children with and without symptoms of ADHD; (2) to determine if data suggested choice overload was present in children; and (3) to examine whether choice experience and post-choice affect were related to the number of options available. One hundred-sixty children aged 4 to 8 participated in a decoy task and were allowed to choose a prize from a treasure box containing 5, 10, 15, or 20 toys. Results indicated that children with symptoms of ADHD spent more time making a decision compared to controls; however, results failed to find support for the choice overload hypothesis in this sample. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed